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Monday, November 26, 2007

AP Treason - Murder?

AP Treason - Murder?

At first this would seem like a trivial news story. It took me some time to realize the significance. Then I remembered seeing real time video of America military vehicles (and American soldiers) being blown up by road side bombs. As I watched, I assumed the video had been supplied by the Islamic Terrorists to the news media for propaganda purposes (this had been done when Reagan was trying to keep Communism out of South America). But now I realize the video was being taken by an employee of the Associated Press.

The fact that Tom Curley is making such strong statements indicates to me that AP is deeply involved in this situation. AP could easily be involved with treason (giving aid and comfort to the enemy) if they knew that Bilal Hussein was getting information from the Islamic Terrorists about where and when the road side bombings were to occur so that he could be in place to video the event. I consider AP and Bilal Hussein committed murder if they failed to inform American military people of the intended attack on American soldiers.

There have been so many things in the past six years where the news media have disgraced themselves that it is incredible. http://narj-clirus.blogspot.com/ The news media all over the world needs to repent of the abuses of freedom of the press and establish a code of ethics to prevent future abuses.

There used to be a phrase, "all the news that is fit to print". News that represents treason and murder is not fit to print no matter what the competitive pressures are. The news media needs to focus on the things Americans have in common instead of the headline grabbing extreme positions that lead to more headline grabbing extreme positions by those who want to grab headlines.

A Code of Ethics for Journalists could go a long way to help journalists prevent treason, murder and domestic extremism.

NEW YORK (AP) - The U.S. military's plan to seek a criminal case against an Associated Press photographer in Iraq without disclosing the charges or evidence against him makes a mockery of American democratic principles, AP President and CEO Tom Curley said Saturday.

"This is a poor example—and not the first of its kind—of the way our government honors the democratic principles and values it says it wants to share with the Iraqi people," Curley said in a column in The Washington Post.

The U.S. military notified the AP last weekend that it intended to submit a complaint against Bilal Hussein that would bring the case into the Iraqi justice system as early as Nov. 29.

Military officials have alleged that Hussein, 36, had links to terrorist groups but are refusing to disclose what evidence or accusations would be presented.

Previously, the military suggested an array of possible lines of investigation, including claims that Hussein offered to provide false identification to a sniper seeking to evade U.S.-led forces, that he possessed bomb-making equipment, and that he took photographs that were synchronized with insurgent blasts.

Hussein, a native of Fallujah, was detained in Ramadi on April 12, 2006.

"We believe Bilal's crime was taking photographs the U.S. government did not want its citizens to see. That he was part of a team of AP photographers who had just won a Pulitzer Prize for work in Iraq may have made Bilal even more of a marked man," Curley wrote.

Hussein was part of the AP's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo team in 2005.

A U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said Saturday that Curley's column reflected a "fundamental misunderstanding of the Iraqi court system as well as the detainee process."

Maj. Bradford Leighton said that Hussein's detention without charge was legal under a United Nations mandate, and explained that the case would proceed differently than it would in the U.S. because the Iraqi system follows different procedures and rules about disclosing evidence.

"It's not like our system," said Leighton. "The evidence is presented to a judge and the judge makes the decision whether the case goes forward."

Leighton said that if the first judge decides there is a strong case, he will send it to a three-judge panel for the trial.

An AP investigation of the case compiled last spring and made public Wednesday concluded that the series of accusations against Hussein do not hold up to scrutiny.

Curley said the military has refused to answer questions from Hussein's attorney, former federal prosecutor Paul Gardephe, since announcing its intentions to seek a case against him. The military would not even share the exact date of the hearing, Curley said.

"How is Gardephe to defend Bilal? This affair makes a mockery of the democratic principles of justice and the rule of law that the United States says it is trying to help Iraq establish," Curley said.